The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo, on Sunday, picked hole in the 2025 budget proposals presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the National Assembly.
Speaking on the budget to journalists in Abuja, Adebayo said there are a number of contradictions in the budget, saying the government was not sincere as expectations in the budget were not realistic.
According to him, the exchange rates fixed in the budget is unrealistic.
“The proposals are self contradictory. For example, in their mind, if they are able to succeed, they are working towards 15% inflation. Any basic microeconomist knows that you must never have double digit inflation,” he said.
He argued that when the political class is populated by decent characters with integrity, a lot of the problems associated with politics and politicians would be solved.
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Adebayo stated: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) itself has a bit of connivance, whether for the sustainability of their appointment or whether people have discovered that they can get rich by taking advantage of the desperation of politicians.
“Most of the problems of an election don’t arise from the INEC. They arise from the political parties. More political parties commit crimes in their primaries than they accuse INEC of.
“So, whatever error the INEC commits, the politicians and political parties even commit more. People bribe delegates for elections. Party chairmen and secretaries switch names like the game of domino.
“So, the political class is guilty. I agree with the submission that politicians contribute to the problems during elections but INEC is supposed to be a professional class and should not collaborate with the politicians to rig elections.”
Adebayo also spoke on the issue of rotational presidency emphasizing that if it must achieve any positive result, it should be at two levels.
He noted that much as it is good to rotate presidency according to the geopolitical zone for peace to reign among the elite, it must also be rotated from the elite to the people for growth and justice to happen in Nigeria.
“If you are rotating from North to South and all of that and rotating about the same wasteful elite who have no idea, you will be rotating poverty, insecurity and others.
“But if you rotate inter generationally, that is from the old people to the young ones and ideologically from those who follow the International Monetary Fund (IMF) –World Bank, to those who have indigenous, authentic and pro-Nigeria idea, you would have some progress for the country,” he added.
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